DEFAULT SYSTEMS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN

UNBUILDING

Similar to what Cem* began discussing, it seems crucial to any facet of design to learn from mistakes and commit mistakes. It speaks to the worthiness of interdisciplinary studies within fields; new learners/someone with an outside perspective has an opportunity to expose variations and new approaches to old problems. Overall, the concept of mistakes provokes a discussion on what is wrong/right in design, which seems to be a never-ending argument.

Also, what were Default Systems based off of? Are these formats something that have been developed through copious precedents? Is there some sort of guideline that the Adobe defaults are based on? Has a cannon of Web Design developed after Giampietro’s 2003 Default Systems in Graphic Design?



*Unbuilding provides an extensive toolbox for a critical approach to design. In terms of web design it raised some important points for me. There are a lot of great computer scientists and developers that have extensive knowledge of programming. However, it is a good opportunity for artists and designers to get familiar with these tools and challenge them, use them wrongly, make intentional mistakes in order to challenge the medium.

In contrast, we might be educated typographers. However, tools such as Microsoft Word, Pages etc. was introduced so that a non-designer can typeset a basic paper, choose a typeface and type size. Even if you start the program and begin typing, there are some defaults that are set for us to use. As Rob Giampietro states that being aware of these defaults and utilizing them in our process automatically creates a self-aware approach. It is an interesting time in design where philosophies such as designing with default systems are challenging some of the classic rules of GD such as stretching or distorting type—a quality introduced with the desktop publishing technology.